PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Grant High School has announced plans to switch all of its bathrooms to gender-neutral as part of a $100 million modernization project.
Grant Principal Dr. Carol Campbell says the decision was reached after careful consideration from multiple channels.
“We had a design advisory group that met for a year,” Dr. Campbell said. “In addition to those meetings, which happened once a month, they had community input meetings.”
Right now, to accommodate transgender students, Grant High School has taken single-stall staff bathrooms and turned them into gender-neutral options for staff and students. Dr. Campbell said that option still singled out students who felt the need to use gender-neutral restrooms.
“Its’ really more difficult to try to transform something that was built in 1920 that matches the demographics of our student body today,” she said.
The new bathrooms will forego “boys” or “girls” labels, instead being simply marked as toilets. The restrooms will continue to be communal, with each stall featuring floor-to-ceiling doors.
The restrooms will also be located on corners and have two doorways, one of which will not have a closing door, in order to allow easier supervision for teachers.
Gender-neutral bathrooms have been a controversial discussion topic across America, but Dr. Campbell told KOIN-6 that hasn’t been the case for her so far.
“There has been overwhelming support,” she said. “I haven’t heard from anyone who’s not supportive.”
